Ever since Badiali opened on Dovercourt, getting a slice has basically meant waiting on the sidewalk. Opening a second counter at Mirvish Village didn’t do much to shorten the line, either. But a new spot downtown might actually give people a reason to split their allegiances.
Side Piece Slice Shop opened Thursday, November 5, at 146 Front St. W., and blew through its dough on day one. You have to head down the alley underneath The Loose Moose next to The Antler Room to find it. The name is an obvious joke, but they are cutting proper, oversized New York slices from 18-inch pies.
Chef Gord Mackie, pizzaiolo Johnathan Urquilla, and Martin Mazur are longtime friends who cooked up the idea over beers following a pizza trip through New York. They wanted to bring classic New York slices to downtown Toronto, using hand-tossed dough that ferments for three days.
The menu at Side Piece covers the basics first: a three-cheese New Yorker, vodka sauce, Margherita, and burrata. From there, it gets more adventurous. Slices include bacon and pickle on a sesame crust with green garlic ranch, spicy soppressata with smoked caciocavallo and pineapple, and lemon ricotta finished with stracciatella and black pepper.
It’s cheaper, too. Whole 18-inch pies run between $27 and $32, which stretches further than Badiali’s smaller 16-inch pies that top out at $34. Slices start at $4.75, with the specialty toppings capping out at $6.
Side Piece plan to open daily from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., assuming the kitchen doesn’t run out of dough before the night is through. If you’re downtown and want a proper slice without standing in a twenty-minute lineup on Dovercourt, you finally have an actual option.